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Muscle Size vs Strength

How to Increase Muscle Size Fast

Many people think that size and strength are the same thing, or that training for strength will give them great muscle size. This observation is interesting, though still incomplete. Personally, I've known many people that have been able to lift more than others of greater muscle bulk and with similar stature, etc.

I know many people whose strength goes up constantly, but their muscle size barely goes up at all. In fact, one person I know his legs are currently larger than when he was able to leg press 1310lbs, even though at the moment (because of a near-injury he's been nursing for about a month after a toe-press incident) he's only able to do squats with no more than 225 for 10 reps. Likewise with his bench press...he's grown barely any at all, chest wise, but has increased 40 lbs on his 3-5 rep bench over a month and a half ago. The fiction that size relates to strength is a fallacy, just as the inverse, that strength brings size (in and of itself) is also false.

The truth of it is this:

1. Doing sufficient weight that you can only achieve 3-5 reps will heighten the nerve firing strength and therefore the contractile force of a given muscle, while the negative with such weights will cause far greater muscle damage than the negative of lower weight ranges. However, low rep/high weight workouts still lack the volume of muscle usage (reps) to incur sufficient growth signal. Still, this weight and rep range doesn't increase muscle size very much, despite the notable increase in strength. It is in repetitions with a sub-maximal weight that more volume of damage stimulus happens.

2. The compensation achieved from such heavy weight usage will be in the firing and contractile signals of muscle strength.

3. This greater peripheral strength increase will allow the trainee to use slightly heavier weights in the 12-15 rep range, which is where the lion share of muscle growth stimulus happens. If this were not an inviolable truth, then people would get huge doing several sets of 3-5 reps. But they don't. They get strong. Not huge.

4. The increased peripheral strength allows higher reps with sub-maximal weights, and therefore greater muscle damage signals for growth. After several workouts in this weight/rep range, (along with continued proper nutrition and sleep) the trainee will achieve greater size commensurate with their testosterone levels.

5. The above approach is only ONE approach, and indeed, high rep workouts with low to medium weights can increase muscle size despite having little impact on muscle strength itself. Secondary considerations to this are the increase in water retention and glycogen storage in muscles trained with high rep workouts.

Bodybuilders like Serge Nubret were famous for having large developed muscles, but not much as much strength. He himself described his workouts as high reps with low weight. That's because strength and size are totally different workouts altogether, which bring totally different results in size and strength.

This information presented is intended to be used for educational purposes only. The statements made have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration (U.S.). These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any condition or disease. Please consult with your own physician or health care practitioner regarding any suggestions and recommendations made.